Analysis of a newly developed multidisciplinary program in the Middle East informed by the recently revised spina bifida guidelines.

Purpose: This paper describes the development and characteristics of a multi-disciplinary spina bifida clinic in Qatar considering the recently revised and globally available Guidelines for the Care of People with Spina Bifida (GCPSB).

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on individuals in Sidra's multidisciplinary spina bifida clinic database from January 2019 to June 2020. Their electronic health records were reviewed for demographics, as well as neurosurgical, urologic, rehabilitation, and orthopedic interventions.

The History of Research Advocacy in Cerebral Palsy.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability of childhood, but US federal government investment into CP research has historically been under-prioritized and under-funded. This issue was brought to the forefront by the parent advocacy group Reaching for the Stars who partnered with the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine to create a strong parent/professional partnership. This collaboration has resulted in increased awareness and federal commitment to cerebral palsy.

Replicating dissemination and identifying mechanisms of implementation of an empirically supported treatment.

Objective: Implementation research is needed in cancer control. Replication of the dissemination of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) is important as is the identification of mechanisms by which dissemination leads to implementation. Addressing these gaps, Study 1 (Cohorts 3-6, N = 104) tests for replication of a successful dissemination to community providers (Brothers et al.

Stress and coping in parents of children with Prader-Willi syndrome: Assessment of the impact of a structured plan of care.

Hyperphagia, developmental delays, and maladaptive behaviors are common in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) likely resulting in heightened parental stress. Objectives were to evaluate stress, describe usefulness of coping behaviors, and assess the impact of a structured Plan of Care (PC) on parents with children with PWS. Parents answered Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP), and narrative/demographic surveys.

Dissemination of an evidence-based treatment for cancer patients: training is the necessary first step.

Evidence-based psychological treatments (EBTs) for cancer patients have not been disseminated in part due to lack of available training. The biobehavioral intervention (BBI) is an EBT designed to alleviate cancer stress and enhance coping. The current study evaluates a training program and uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB) to analyze factors related to intentions to implement BBI.

Test of mindfulness and hope components in a psychological intervention for women with cancer recurrence.

Objective: Psychological interventions can attenuate distress and enhance coping for those with an initial diagnosis of cancer, but there are few intervention options for individuals with cancer recurrence. To address this gap, we developed and tested a novel treatment combining Mindfulness, Hope Therapy, and biobehavioral components.

Method: An uncontrolled, repeated measures design was used.

Emotions and social relationships for breast and gynecologic patients: a qualitative study of coping with recurrence.

Background: In contrast to the large literature on patients' coping with an initial diagnosis of cancer, there have been few quantitative or qualitative studies of patients coping with recurrence. A qualitative study was undertaken to aid in the development of a tailored intervention for these patients.

Methods: Individuals (N=35) receiving follow-up care for recurrent breast or gynecologic cancer at a university-affiliated cancer center participated in an individual or a group interview.

Psychological stress is associated with altered levels of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in breast cancer patients.

Our group has shown in a randomized clinical trial that psychological intervention to reduce stress in patients with stages II and III breast cancer led to enhanced immune function, fewer recurrences and improved overall survival. We hypothesized that patients with high levels of stress would have alterations in myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) compared to patients with lower stress. PBMC from 16 patients with high stress (n = 8) or with low stress (n = 8) after surgery as measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES) questionnaire were evaluated for the presence of MDSC.

Biobehavioral, immune, and health benefits following recurrence for psychological intervention participants.

Purpose: A clinical trial was designed to test the hypothesis that a psychological intervention could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Newly diagnosed regional breast cancer patients (n = 227) were randomized to the intervention-with-assessment or the assessment-only arm. The intervention had positive psychological, social, immune, and health benefits, and after a median of 11 years the intervention arm was found to have reduced the risk of recurrence (hazard ratio, 0.

The pain, depression, and fatigue symptom cluster in advanced breast cancer: covariation with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system.

Objective: Neuroendocrine-immune models have been proposed to account for the frequent co-occurrence of pain, depression, and fatigue (PDF) among cancer patients.

Design: In a cross-sectional observational study of advanced cancer patients (N = 104), we tested the hypothesis that the PDF cluster covaries with proposed biological mediators: hormones of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Main Outcome Measures: PDF symptoms were measured using the Brief Pain Inventory, Fatigue Symptom Inventory, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scales.

A psychological intervention reduces inflammatory markers by alleviating depressive symptoms: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: To test experimentally whether a psychological intervention reduces depression-related symptoms and markers of inflammation among cancer patients and to test one mechanism for the intervention effects. Depression and inflammation are common among cancer patients. Data suggest that inflammation can contribute to depressive symptoms, although the converse remains untested.

Psychologic intervention improves survival for breast cancer patients: a randomized clinical trial.

Background: The question of whether stress poses a risk for cancer progression has been difficult to answer. A randomized clinical trial tested the hypothesis that cancer patients coping with their recent diagnosis but receiving a psychologic intervention would have improved survival compared with patients who were only assessed.

Methods: A total of 227 patients who were surgically treated for regional breast cancer participated.

Delayed emotional recovery after taxane-based chemotherapy.

Background: There are few patient-reported data regarding quality of life after taxane-based adjuvant chemotherapy and none regarding mental health outcomes.

Methods: This was a naturalistic, longitudinal study that used a case-control design. Data were derived from a randomized clinical trial in patients who had stage II/III breast cancer (N = 227).

Immune, endocrine, and behavioral precursors to breast cancer recurrence: a case-control analysis.

Background: A period of tumor growth precedes the clinical detection of breast cancer recurrence. We explore immune, endocrine, and behavioral parameters during this period.

Methods: We conducted a phase III clinical trial in which women with surgically treated stage II/III breast cancer (N = 227) were randomized to receive a psychological intervention or assessment-only and then regularly assessed for 10 years.

Surviving recurrence: psychological and quality-of-life recovery.

Background: To the authors' knowledge, data characterizing patients' psychosocial experiences after a recurrence diagnosis are limited. This report provides the physical, psychological, and quality-of-life trajectories of patients with recurrent breast cancer. In addition, patients with a well-documented trajectory -- patients with their initial diagnosis of breast cancer -- were included as a referent group, providing a metric against which to gauge the impact and course of cancer recurrence.

The host hospital 24-hour underreferral rate: an automated measure of call-center safety.

Objectives: The goals were to (1) define and illustrate an automated method of monitoring the safety of telephone triage, (2) demonstrate that this method approximates reasonably a more-global safety measure, and (3) describe the month-to-month variability of this automated measure for the call center studied.

Methods: From October 2005 through March 2006, hospitalizations at a tertiary care pediatric hospital after calls to its call center were matched with their respective call-center dispositions. The host hospital 24-hour underreferral rate was defined as the percentage of total admissions to the study institution within 24 hours after a call to the call center for treatment of the same illness or injury that had been assigned a nonurgent disposition by the call center.

Impaired natural killer cell lysis in breast cancer patients with high levels of psychological stress is associated with altered expression of killer immunoglobin-like receptors.

Background: We previously reported that cancer-related psychological stress is associated with reduced natural killer (NK) cell lysis. We hypothesized that reduced NK cell cytotoxicity in patients with increased levels of stress would correlate with alterations in the expression of inhibitory NK cell receptors (killer immunoglobulin-like receptors, or KIRs). The specific aim of this study was to examine KIR expression in patients with high or low levels of psychologic stress and correlate alterations in KIR expression with NK cell function.

Individual trajectories in stress covary with immunity during recovery from cancer diagnosis and treatments.

Research connects stressful events with altered immune regulation, but the role of subjective stress is uncertain. Using a longitudinal design, we provide a statistically powerful test of the relationship between subjective stress (perceived stress, emotional distress) and immunity (T cell blastogenesis, natural killer cell cytotoxicity, [NKCC]) as individuals adjust to a severe stressor, a cancer diagnosis and its treatments. Women with regional breast cancer (N=113) were assessed at diagnosis/surgery and reassessed 4, 8, 12, and 18 months later.

Traumatic stress, perceived global stress, and life events: prospectively predicting quality of life in breast cancer patients.

The authors investigated the relationship between stress at initial cancer diagnosis and treatment and subsequent quality of life (QoL). Women (n = 112) randomized to the assessment-only arm of a clinical trial were initially assessed after breast cancer diagnosis and surgery and then reassessed at 4 months (during adjuvant treatment) and 12 months (postadjuvant treatment). There were 3 types of stress measured: number of stressful life events (K.

Cellular immunity in breast cancer patients completing taxane treatment.

Purpose: A field study of postchemotherapy immune functioning relative to the use of taxanes is reported. Immune responses in breast cancer patients were analyzed as a function of whether patients received taxane as part of their adjuvant chemotherapy.

Experimental Design: Immune levels of 227 stage II/III breast cancer patients were measured immediately after surgery prior to chemotherapy and again 12 months later when all chemotherapies had been completed.

Cardiac UCP2 expression and myocardial oxidative metabolism during acute septic shock in the rat.

Unlabelled: Septic shock decreases cardiac hydraulic work relative to the rate of myocardial oxygen consumption, causing decreased mechanical efficiency (hydraulic work/myocardial oxygen consumption). This study tested whether the mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP2 was responsible for decreased cardiac mechanical efficiency after polymicrobial septic shock. Sepsis was initiated in ketamine/xylazine-anesthetized rats by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP).

NOX5 NAD(P)H oxidase regulates growth and apoptosis in DU 145 prostate cancer cells.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) appear to play an important role in regulating growth and survival of prostate cancer. However, the sources for ROS production in prostate cancer cells have not been determined. We report that ROS are generated by intact American Type Culture Collection DU 145 cells and by their membranes through a mechanism blocked by NAD(P)H oxidase inhibitors.